College football player with 'huge heart' dies in Mexico while on spring break, months before graduation

A football player expected to graduate from Amherst College in Massachusetts this coming May died while on spring break in Mexico City last week.

Andrew Dorogi, a 21-year-old economics major from Cleveland, died Friday, college President Biddy Martin wrote in an email to students Sunday, the Amherst Student reported. The cause of death was not provided.

A U.S. State Department spokesman confirmed the death but would not provide details.

Family and friends said the news of Dorogi’s death left them “beyond belief.”

“He had it all -- handsome, great family, wonderful parents. We are just beyond belief and grieving,” Jenifer Johnston, mother of a high school friend of Dorogi, told FOX 8 Cleveland.

Johnston said that during their high school years Dorogi and her son had traveled to Honduras as volunteers for the Hope for Honduran Children Foundation.

“They taught kids in a village about geography and English and delivered water sanitation to the village,” Johnston told the station. “He would be trusting, caring and kind. That’s just the way he was.”

The Amherst Student reported that the college held a gathering on Monday where students, coaches and faculty remembered the football player as someone who “wanted to make people happy.”

“To me, Dorogi was just a guy with a huge heart,” teammate Kevin Sheehan told the paper. “He was the kind of guy that would always put a smile on your face, no matter what.”

"He was the kind of guy that would always put a smile on your face, no matter what."

— Kevin Sheehan, football teammate

According to the senior's obituary, he also played hockey and sang baritone in the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus while growing up.

The running back was due to start a job at Wells Fargo as an investment banking analyst after graduating.

“We will forever treasure the blessing of our time with Andrew, and the precious memories of how he enriched our lives and fortified our spirits,” his family wrote.